Sleepy Eye Post 7 Legion drops two to Mankato

The Sleepy Eye Post 7 Legion lost its last two games of the regular season to Mankato teams.

Chris Flores/Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch

The Sleepy Eye Post 7 Legion lost its last two games of the regular season to Mankato teams.

On July 18, Sleepy Eye went on the road to take on Mankato National. Mankato hit well on its home field and beat Sleepy Eye 10-5.

Jordan Anderson gave Mankato too many opportunities on the mound early in the game. Anderson pitched for the first two innings and threw one strikeout, four walks, and allowed three hits and five runs. However, Anderson led Sleepy Eye at the plate, going 3-for-4 at bat with a double and an RBI.

“A tough start for Jordan as he had trouble finding the zone today,” Coach Bruce Woitas said. “We fought our way back but came up short.”

Meanwhile, Mitch Neid spent four innings pitching for Sleepy Eye and threw five strikeouts, one walk, four hits, and three runs.

John Mangen and Brady Hansen each went 2-for-4 at bat, while Mike Hirsch went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Sean Mathiowetz went 1-for-3 with two RBI.

On July 22, Sleepy Eye hosted Mankato American for its final regular season game of the summer.

Many, costly mistakes were made by Sleepy Eye. The team committed more than 10 errors over the course of nine innings, which explains the 16 runs scored by Mankato.

Sleepy Eye held its own at the beginning of the game, after it scored two runs in the first in attempt to mirror the three runs scored by Mankato in the first. But all hope was lost for Sleepy Eye in the third and fourth innings after Mankato scored six more combined runs to get a 9-3 lead. A couple of those runs were due to a home run by a Mankato player.

Sleepy Eye had opportunities in the bottom of the fourth to regain some ground, but only came up with a single run and left a couple of runners on base.

Although Mankato still had a big lead, Sleepy Eye didn’t give up quite yet, as the team had a big fifth inning and scored four runs to make the score 12-8.

Sleepy Eye was only able to score one final run, while Mankato took in four more to make the final score 16-9.

Leading at bat was Mike Zinniel, who went 2-for-2, and Brandon Helget who went 2-for-4 and had a double with an RBI. David Surprenant went 2-for-3 with an RBI while Mike Hirsch went 1-for-4 but had two RBI.

Zinniel, Surprenant, and Hirsch split the game on the mound.

Sleepy Eye will be looking for revenge on the Mankato American team, as the two teams will play each other again on July 25 in New Ulm for the first playoff game.

“We need to play better baseball as we get ready for the playoffs,” Woitas said.